2). Blue Planet
Oceans cover 72% of the surface of our blue planet and constitute more than 95% of the
biosphere. Life originated in the oceans and they continue to support all life today by
generating oxygen, absorbing carbon dioxide, recycling nutrients and regulating global
climate and temperature.
Oceans provide a substantial portion of the global population with food and livelihoods and
are the means of transport for 80% of global trade
. The marine and coastal environment
also constitutes a key resource for the important global tourism industry; supporting all
aspects of the tourism development cycle from infrastructure and the familiar “sun, sand
and sea” formula to the diverse and expanding domain of nature-based tourism.
The seabed currently provides 32% of the global supply of hydrocarbons with exploration
expanding. Advancing technologies are opening new frontiers of marine resource
development from bio-prospecting to the mining of seabed mineral resources. The sea also
offers vast potential for renewable “blue energy” production from wind, wave, tidal,
thermal and biomass sources.
Human development activities, however, have seriously taxed the resilience of the marine
and coastal resource base. FAO data indicates that 87% of global fish stocks are fully or over
exploited3
. Increasing pollution and unsustainable coastal development further contribute
to the loss of biodiversity, ecological function and the decline in provision of environmental
services. Climate change threatens to remove literally the very foundations of broad
swathes of coastal development whilst rising atmospheric CO2 levels are undermining
fundamental aspects of many marine ecosystems through ocean acidification; changing
ocean chemistry at a speed faster than at any time in the last 300 million years
.
The potential of the oceans to meet sustainable development needs is enormous; but only if
they can be maintained in and/or restored to a healthy, and productive state. The
importance of oceans for sustainable development has been recognised from the beginning
of the UNCED process, in Agenda 21, the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and
reaffirmed in the outcome document of the Rio+20 Conference; but ongoing trends of
exploitation and degradation of marine and coastal ecosystems show that endeavours to
date have been insufficient and that more needs to be and must be done.